Mawlamyine

Etymology and legend

The Mon name which was previously used for Mawlamyine, Moulmein (မတ်မလီု; [mòt məlɜ̀m]) means "damaged eye."

It is said to derive from Mot-Mua-Lum, meaning "one eye destroyed". According to legend, a Mon king had a powerful third eye in the centre of his forehead, able to see what was happening in neighbouring kingdoms. The daughter of one of the neighbouring kings was given in marriage to the three-eyed king and managed to destroy the third eye. The Burmese name "Mawlamyine" is believed to be a corruption of the Mon name.

History

Mawlamyine was the first capital of British Burma between 1826 and 1852 after the Tanintharyi (Tenassarim) coast, along with Arakan, was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandabo at the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War.

Mawlamyine is the setting of George Orwell's famous 1936 memoir Shooting an Elephant. The essay opens with the striking words:

"In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people—the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me."

During colonial times, Moulmein had a substantial Anglo-Burmese population. An area of the city was known as "Little England" due to the large Anglo-Burmese community, many of them running rubber plantations This has since dwindled to a handful of families as most have left for the UK or Australia.

It is probably best known to English speakers through the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling's poem Mandalay:

"By the old Moulmein pagoda, lookin' lazy at the seaThere's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me".

"The old Moulmein pagoda" - Kyaik than lan

The "old Moulmein pagoda" Kipling cites is thought to be the Kyaik than lan (also spelled Kyaikthanlan) pagoda in Mawlamyine. It stands on a ridge, giving a panoramic view of the city, and is surrounded by 34 smaller temples. Among its sacred treasures is a hair relic of Buddha, received from a hermit in Thaton, as well as a tooth relic conveyed from Sri Lanka by a delegation of monks.

Built in 875 CE during the reign of King Mutpi Raja, it was raised from its original height of 56 feet (17 metres) to the present 150 feet (46 metres) by successive kings including Anawrahta, founder of the Bagan Dynasty. (Anawrahta is also credited with the construction of the Shwedagon Pagoda in 1056 AD.)

Win Sein reclining Buddha at Mudon

29 km south of Mawlamyine is the world's largest reclining Buddha at Mudon. It is approached by a roadway with 500 life size statues of Arahant disciples of Buddha and a hall whose chamber walls display scenes of Buddha's lifetime, and the underworld.

Geography

Mawlamyine is in the Salween River delta, where the mouth of the Salween is sheltered by Bilugyun Island as it enters the Gulf of Martaban and the Andaman Sea. It is flanked by low hills dotted with ancient pagodas to the east and west.

Transport

Mawlamyine is the main gateway to south eastern Myanmar. Thanlwin Bridge, the longest road and rail bridge in Myanmar is the most prominent landmark in the area. It stretches 11,000 feet (3,400 metres) over the Thanlwin River connecting the country's south eastern region with Yangon. The city is connected to Pa-an in Kayin State and Dawei and Myeik in Tanintharyi Division by road. It was the rail head to Ye, linked to Yangon by rail only from Mottama (Martaban) across the river by ferry, but today connected by the Thanlwin Bridge (Mawlamyine) opened in April 2006.

Mawlamyine Airport has regular flights to Yangon.

Economy

Mawlamyine is famous for its tropical fruits and for its cuisine as indicated in the popular Burmese expression, "Mandalay for the speaking, Yangon for the bragging, and Mawlamyine for the eating."

Mawlamyine had several sawmills and rice mills as teak and rice are transported down the Salween. It was once a busy shipbuilding center and remains an important port. The city had a solar-powered plant for extracting salt from seawater and a diesel electric plant.

On the night of 1 December 2008, a fire that started from a floating restaurant destroyed the larger of city's two markets called the lower bazaar.

On 27 May 2009, three bomb explosions in Mawlamyine were blamed on terrorists by the authorities. No casualties were reported.

Culture

Mawlamyine is key to communications in Tanintharyi and, being a busy seaport and transport center, it provides a multicultural dimension despite a Buddhist Mon majority. Buddhist cultural dominance is as old as Mawlamyine, but the British annexation in the 19th century introduced Christianity. St Patrick's School, Mawlamyine (now BEHS-5, Mawlamyine) was opened by the De La Salle Brothers in 1860. Moreover, expansion of trade and commerce in the early 20th century established in Mawlamyine a Hindu culture of India (so-called Galakhar).

Today, the Mon State Cultural Museum is in the city.

Education

Mawlamyine has 13 high schools and a university. The University of Mawlamyine is the major university for the south eastern region and offers bachelor's degrees in most arts and science majors. Students who wish to study medicine, engineering or computer science, or any advanced degree need to go to Yangon. Now,There is Technology University that offers Bachelor of Engineering( B.E) and the university represents Mon State. So,the students who want to study engineering's subjects don't go to Yangon.

The first international student of Bucknell University, Class of 1864, Maung Shaw Loo—born in 1839 in Moulmein—was the first Myanmar medical doctor and native Burmese who studied and was graduated in the United States.

Sister cities

Mawlamyine established a Friendship City agreement with Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA in 2016.